Effective Missional Strategy is Simpler Than People Think
A look at a strategic framework for Great Commission/Great Commandment ministry in the 50 largest urban areas in the continental USA.
Effective Missional Strategy is Simpler Than People Think
Effective missional strategy in the organized Christian world has always come easy for me. I always score high in inventories that measure strategic thinking and visualizing what could be.
It is my sweet spot. I appreciate what I consider to be a gift from God cultivated by my father who also thought strategically, and by numerous mentors in my life.
My strategic and future-focused experience is primarily with congregations and denominations. I helped thousands of congregations and hundreds of denominational organizations in around 50 denominations throughout North America.
I have an action bias toward transition and change that can lead to transformation and greater Kingdom progress.
This does not mean everything I tried over the past five decades was a success. I experienced failures and sought to learn from them.
At times this was because I found out too late what I did not know when planning the strategy that would keep it from happening.
At other times it was because too many influential people opposed the strategy because they had a different strategy they supported. My suggested strategy was in competition with the way they did things. They were comfortable with what was familiar to them and gave them personal affirmation.
Often the opposition was because either they wanted to control the change or because they did not want things to change. Control and resistance are powerful forces.
Mega Focus Cities
The largest project was given to me when I was 30 years old.
I was asked to develop and implement a strategy for the leading Protestant denomination in North America to increase the effectiveness of Great Commission and Great Commandment ministry in the 50 largest metropolitan areas in the continental United States.
I was on a team of people to whom I was accountable. Along with that team I prayed, pondered, studied, networked with people, and traveled throughout the country to figure out what might work.
Then the design for Mega Focus Cities emerged. Its development was simple. Its implementation took massive amounts of spiritual, strategic, and sweat equity.
It was also based on a dependable funding system.
It was hard work. But it revolved around a couple of simple ideas.
A Simple Missional Strategy
The core idea was to get everyone within the Southern Baptist Convention denominational structure directly involved in missional efforts in each of the 50 largest metropolitan areas in a room working together to review a spiritual and strategic plan to resource effective missional strategy.
To do this with the 50 metropolitan areas within a decade meant four or more cities per year.
Development of the Strategy: The first step was to develop a customized plan for a metropolitan area. This is probably the most important part of the strategy.
A customized plan could not be developed in regional and national denominational offices. It had to be developed in the grassroots where pastors, staff ministers, and lay leaders lived and breathed the mission of God for their context.
They would also be the people who must believe in the strategy, own the actions and follow-up, and focus their full heart, soul, mind, and strength on making Kingdom progress.
A spiritual and theological component was also essential. It had to do with this question: Where is the voice of the Holy Spirit clearest? In the grassroots, in a regional denominational office, or in a national denominational office?
I hope the answer is obvious to you. It is in the grassroots where people live and breathe the mission 24/7.
Certainly, the Holy Spirit is speaking in and through the lives and ministry of regional and national leaders. But it is less likely with the same contextual intensity and passion.
Regional and national leaders have access to research, trends, and effective methodologies from throughout the country and world. They do need an opportunity to provide input in these during the development of the strategy.
Often this was accomplished through an initial gathering of the local, regional, and national team for each metropolitan area. Eventually these were held in the focus cities themselves.
However, the ownership of the actual strategy must be local and long-term empowering to the contextual leaders.
Resourcing the Strategy: The second step was a gathering to assess the strategy, and for local, regional, and national leaders to make commitments to resource the strategy.
This was accomplished through a gathering of a couple of days where leaders would meet face-to-face to formally receive the strategy developed by local leaders, hear their requests for resourcing, and receive their projections of the resources they could provide locally.
Regional and national leaders would make tentative commitments to resources they would provide. These would be confirmed later by formal agreements.
Often some negotiation would take place about who would provide various resources, the timing, and the methodology.
The experience was that more than 80 percent of the requests made by focus cities were accepted and the resources provided.
Monitoring the Kingdom Progress: Annually a review of the strategy and resourcing took place. A national research office would assess the progress make.
A most interesting aspect of the research was that it showed visible, measurable progress was made in focus cities during the year of strategy development.
The process itself was an empowering journey for the local leaders in the Mega Focus Cities. The focus worked.
Afterword Part One
There were many other factors that led to the success of this strategic initiative. This is but a brief understanding of how truly simple the underlying framework was.
A spiritual foundation, focus, intentionally, and targeted resources are effective for Great Commission/Great Commandment fulfillment.
Afterward Part Two
Southern Baptists are currently studying why a program called Great Commission Resurgence begun around 2010 is not working. One simple answer is there is no commitment for equals from national, regional, and local denominational entities to fully collaborate. National is driving the program and mandating regional and local leaders follow their strategy.
Perhaps they need to remember where the voice of the Holy Spirit is clearest.